We Live In a Wolf Lodge.

The road to his wolf was rafe with pouting and drama. But once I calmed down, we started working on Elijah's Wolf merit badge. So maybe the drama wasn't from me. But there was drama.

Sometime around October we realized he was really close to earning it and decide to see if we could get it done by the next Pack Meeting. Some of the things that were hard for us were picking up liter (we waited until it was too cold) and making something useful out of wood.

We eventually had him make a bird house. We got one from Home Depot. It was the same price as the one at the Scouting Office, but not such a ripoff. I mean, um...Have you even noticed how much everything costs at the Scouting Office?
My favorite part is the swimming goggles used as saftey goggles. Heh.
Here is Johnny presenting his Wolf at the Pack Meeting in December.


This is Elijah putting my pin on my mothers necklace. Best Over Priced Invention Ever.

One Man's Trash...

I have found a series of pictures I thought I should post. Ally has long been my creative child. Very artistic. All my kids have a tendency to collect trash. I regularly go through their rooms and just throw away trash. Yes, it really is usually just trash.

We recently had to go to the Bishops Storehouse and we came home with TONS of boxes. Most of them pretty small. We started throwing them in the carport, but then the kids found them. Well Ally found them. Here are her creations...
Since Ally is in half day Kindergarten and all of her friends are in older grades, she has lots of time to sit and play. Here she is stacking the boxes up to see how high she can get it. Any higher than that and she hits the ceiling.
All made a playhouse, complete with adjustable shelving. Lauren just likes to follow her siblings around.
No, I am not just showcasing my dirty carpet. There is a man made from spaghetti noodles in the picture. Some noodles hit the floor and rather than letting us throw them out, she wanted to play with them. But since you can't see the man, it pretty much IS just my dirty carpet.

Brrrr!

It might just be a "snuggle down watching Wiggles with a cup of hot chocolate" kind of day. So. Cold. (Lauren drinks hot chocolate with a spoon.)

Nest

The other night I walked by Elijah's room and found this:

I stopped and stood there, searching for my son. Is he in there? And if he is in there, is he alive? Should I dig him out? Or should I just take pictures and post them on my blog? It was a tough decision.

Just so you know. I found him.

She's Got Skillz

Eden, tolerating her sister as a chair.


Eden has been a great baby. Here are some things you may not know about her. She has proven to be huge. You know like all my other kids but Lauren. (Lauren is my only baby that stayed in the proper clothing size.) A lot of you didn't see my older two children as babies. Huge. It translated to tall later.

Eden is nearly five months and nearly out of the 3-6 month clothing. I had the opportunity to hold Eden and a three week older baby at the same time yesterday. Eden outweighed her. By a lot. My chubby baby is cute.

She is very easy to put to sleep. I just lay her down and she falls a sleep. I don't think it will last, but I'm going to love it while it does.

Eden also loves rolling over. Here are some shots of her progress.

Starting on her tummy.
At first she would get stuck in this position. She's look all around and smile, but stay like this. Poor tykes neck wasn't up to rolling over. Now a couple months later, she manages to get around pretty well. My little baby is mobile. (Granted a very slow mobile, but still.)
Eden is our first thumb sucker. If she loses the pacifier, her thumb is the next best thing. If you are really lucky, you will catch her sucking her lower lip. She is such a efficient child. I go all night some nights and don't hear a peep from her.
"Dad, help me. She's torturing me again." Eden is very sensitive to torture.
Eden was started on solid foods recently with mixed results. This is her, "This didn't taste as good as I thought it would" look.
Funny story. After this feeding, in which she was most definitely not impressed through most of it (just PLAIN rice cereal) I took her to a chair and sat down to eat a cinnamon roll (me, not her) and she was staring down the cinnamon roll, quite intently. Next thing I knew, she had latched onto my hand and pulled the sweet treat into her mouth. NOW she was impressed . She got nearly half the roll down before I could force my hand away to many loud protests. Pretty sneaky sis! (Okay, so I may have just let her have some at that point. So sue me.)
She eventually got the hang of it and then some. Now if we don't feed her she gets grumpy indeed. She will stare you down to get some food out of you. She is one step away from begging. There is a reason she is so big. But my other kids were all like this. As babies. Not now.Eden does a pretty awesome pirate imitation. Arrrr!

Where Does It Hurt THIS Time?

I took Lauren to the doctor again today. The ice cream diet worked but some other symptoms came back. Where to start, where to start...

So I haven't told the whole story with Lauren. She has had more issues than I have discussed, but I thought I solved them. I was wrong.

At about 18 months I started noticing that she would wake up screaming in the middle of the night. At first I thought it was just nightmares and she would outgrow them. Another child of mine had severe nightmares so I wasn't to concerned. About nine months later I started realizing that she was in pain when she woke. These wakings happened about one every week or so. And she would be up crying most of the night.

Kind of funny though that because of her speech delay she couldn't accurately describe where she was hurting. She would say her foot hurt. Every time. So frustrating to have a child holding their tummy, claiming their foot hurt. lol

They seemed to be tapering off and then whappo, they would start again. The whole day she would have a tummy ache and be a beast that night. I mentioned it to the doctor many times. As many times as I asked the doctor about the loose stools is as many times I asked about the tummy aches. Last time he suggested Gas Drops, which helped a little. She would only cry half of the night...

So in August she had a horrible attack and I started really truly eliminating things from her diet. Just to see what would make a difference or if she had any intolerance's like Ally did. And this is what seemed to help:

Cutting out sugar free food and drinks, but most especially gum
Cutting out Citrus fruit
Cutting out beans
Cutting out spicy food

It was at this point she got put on the ice cream diet. And she hadn't had a night waking for about two months. But while the ice cream was working on the loose stools, the tummy aches were coming back. She would have a tummy ache for about half of the week and then the night wakings came back at least weekly. It has been very frustrating.

So I went to the doctor and explained that this issue has come back since the ice cream diet. Told him everything we've tried over the last two years. And he had two suggestions:
Either Ceiliacs or IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome)

Since IBS is much more likely due to the family history (that's me, the family history) she most likely has that.

I'm not surprised. I have wondered for a while if she could have it. I was really hoping it would be lactose intolerance. So we are next off to a specialist. Hopefully he can shed some light on this subject.

I see my cute little girl on the days she feels well, but it breaks my heart that she has been so naughty, hiding her sweetness under the naughtiness, because she doesn't feel well. And hasn't felt well for a long time.

Unfortunately milk is something that sets off IBS, so I'm not sure what will happen to the ice cream diet, that really helped one issue, but made another worse.

I wish this was easier.

Boys Will Be Boys

Elijah has had a good group of boys to play with. They have come over to play a few times and always seem so excited to see each other. I have to admit, Alex, the boy he tried to wrestle with is the funniest to me. Matt and I sit and listen to their conversations and laugh. Sometimes I have to hide in my room the conversations make me laugh so hard.

Here are my two favorite stories.

In late November Alex came over and they were playing Mario Kart. Elijah is very competitive and tends to freak out a tad if he loses. (Honestly, both Matt and I are not competitive. I'm assuming it is a natural boy thing, or at least a natural Elijah thing because we didn't teach it to him.)

Alex did something that made Elijah lose the whole game and Elijah was so upset he kicked Alex. Hard. In the leg.

After I had majorly punished Elijah, they continued playing and I sat in the room to make sure there were no further incidents. Every time Elijah would start to become upset Alex would scoff:

E: Alex! Don't shoot that turtle shell at me! I'm in first!

A: Elijah, it's part of the game. That is why they give out turtle shells.

E: Alex! If you do that I'm not going to play with you anymore!

A: What? That's dumb! Oh I forgot. You "have to win" or you are "going to kick me."

Really, to hear such udder sarcasm from an eight year old boy made me laugh. I decided that Alex was exactly what Elijah needed.


Yesterday, Alex came over again and the conversation I overheard went as follows:

E: DON'T TURN THE GAME BACK ON! I'm going to the bathroom! That's cheating! You're a cheater!

A: Well you are a LIAR! You said that if I pushed A and B and hit the joystick left I would do the super move (This was Greek to me.) It didn't do the Super MOVE and you LIED!

E: I didn't lie! I really thought it would do that!

The was a brief pause in the arguing, then:

E: So what do you want to play next? (All was forgiven! So NOT a girl thing.)

I could not stop laughing. Boys make me laugh so hard. I'm having so much fun with him now it makes me sad he's my only one.

We need to have Alex back more often.

Haunted Happenings

We did a few things for Halloween, and in an effort to catch up, I'm going to put them all on at once. This is also an attempt to minimize serial blogging. People miss posts when I do that. But sometimes you have to do it when you have the time, you know?

Early in the month we went to Gardner Village. We really went there to go to the Doll Shop (Ally's birthday was the next day), but as long as we were there the kids wanted to go on the Witch Hunt. Too bad for the kids their parents didn't print up the paper that goes a long with it. (Truthfully, I was just thinking about the shopping I had to do.) So we just walked around and took in the awesome sights. We saw a few witches too.

Matt took the kids around while Eden and I sneaked into the Doll Shop, unnoticed. He caught some very cute shops of the older three that I wanted to share. I'm really not even sharing all of them.
Lauren has become firmly three. And in her case it means she wants to dress herself. Often she puts on inappropriate clothing. Usually shorts. This created quite a stir when we need to change her because it's snowing outside. I've let her go if the weather is "nice" or if it's a skirt. If a girl wants to freeze of her important parts, sometimes she should be able too. It was a relatively nice day that day and she didn't seem too cold.
The kids must have been in a good mood. :)

Later in the month we carved our pumpkins. This year out pumpkin crop (and just about all of our other crops) died due to lack of care. Seriously, I had a baby. It wasn't happening. So we bought some pumpkins from some kids in my parents neighborhood. This ended up being much cheaper than Walmart, that is for sure.

We spent a family home evening at my parents carving the things. This worked out because while I was scooping and Matt was carving, my parents could watch the younger two and the older two could harass my parents.

Ally, not so patiently waiting for me to scoop out a pumpkin.
This is the only picture we got of the pumpkins. Somehow the shot on the porch with the candles never happened.
Lauren has been involved in our neighborhood Joy School. As part of it they had a Halloween Parade. Here they are:
In order Caterin Boy, Emily, Calitos, Timothy, Lauren, Lucy and Jed.

Another shot: Emily, Carlitos, timothy and Lauren. (Lauren has also developed an opinion about her hair. She wanted it like this that day. The next day was the Halloween Parade at the older kids school. Unfortunately because Ally was in AM Kindergarten her parade was a different time from Elijah's. I caught a quick picture of her.
Since we had to go back to the school a couple hours later, we went to Del Taco for lunch. Here are the kids playing in their costumes there. Lauren let me do her hair that day, but it fell out on it's own. So she looks like a rag-a-muffin anyway.

Ally looking cute as well. They really did enchant everyone. At the end a teenager came in dressed as Buddy the Elf from Elf. IT was an awesome costume.
Then we headed back for Elijah's parade. We allowed him to get one more Ninja costume. Then he is forbidden to get another one. I'm just going to have to make him something cooler than a Ninja. But really, what could be cooler than a Ninja?

Good News

I went to Eden's four month check up today. You know, the one I was stressing about for two months. I have to say, I'm glad I switched doctors. The new doctor was very specific with what he wanted me to do. So let me go down, issue by issue.

Torticollis

She is doing great but her sternocleidomastoid (I always knew memorizing the muscles would come in handy someday. Thank you Aerobics)is still a little tight. So he was very specific to explain what stretches to do, for how long and when. I only had a vague explanation before and this helped a lot.

Clogged Tear Ducts

We are to continue to use the drops four times a day. That will get rid of the eye infection, but the clogged tear ducts may still be a problem. If they haven't cleared up by six months, then they may not. So around eight months we can discuss sending her in to "clean them out."

Flat spot on the back of her head.

She no longer needs the head positioner and he said she won't need a helmet. However, the back of her head is still a bit uneven. So she needs to have a new sleep positioner where she sleeps on her side .

Flat Spot on the top of the head.

The doctor examined her head and told me she doesn't have Unilateral Coronal Synostosis. She will not need surgery. (Yipee.)

The Doctor also said that I need to start feeding her soon. They have changed (like in the last month) how they introduce solids to babies. They say now that you have a brief window to introduce the food. If you wait too long it increases the chance of them getting allergies. So you do it between 4 to 6 months. And you don't have any restrictions. SO you can introduce eggs, milk and citrus with the normal food. So tomorrow we are starting to process! Wow.

So I only face the possibility of one minor surgery at this point. I feel very blessed. :) Lots of prayers were involved in this. I love getting answers.

****When I originally posted this I realized that I hadn't spell checked the way I should have and I didn't update about Lauren.

The ice cream diet worked. For the first time in her entire life she is having solid poop. This means she will be on the diet for the rest of her childhood. (That part kind of sucks. Ice cream is expensive! lol)

Ally Oop

Before you think I've completely lost my sense of humor, I need to post what's been going on, the events and such. And even though I should be rearranging my whole house, and cleaning it (it gets worse before it gets better in remodeling right?) I will finish this post I started on Halloween.

Ally turned SIX. I can't believe it. We celebrated her birthday with a Mad Hatter Tea Party with friends and a family party later. But first I need to describe my Ally.

Ally is:

Beautiful
Nurturing
Quiet
Perfectionist
Social Butterfly
Clean
Sweet
Loving
Easy-going
Good-Natured

She really is a good kid, most of the time.


Ally has been really getting into her American Girl doll. She really, really wanted a kitchen for her doll. We were lucky enough to find a cheap inexpensive knock-off at Target. Yipee! Inexpensive is perfect. Unfortunately when a little girl likes expensive gifts, she only gets one gift a year.

When we were discussing what theme to do for her party, she wanted a Tea Party or a picnic. Well, I'm not chancing a picnic in October, so we had a Mad Hatter's Tea Party. She was stressed because she didn't want to dress up party. I told her we could do a whole Alice in Wonderland theme. She said she was willing, but she really had no idea what that meant. She's never seen the movie. (Sad oversight on our part.)
So I set the table with mismatched dishes (Thanks for the idea Tricia.) The girls each got their own teacup and saucer to take home as a party favor. See those white flowers in the middle of the table? Those weren't just a decoration.
We painted Roses Red. We had the song playing in the background so they weren't too confused.
It was actually kind of fun. Another game we tried (which was a horrible flop to be perfectly honest) was trying to say their names backwards. I even typed them out, but the little girls just seems to think I was retarded for spelling their names wrong.
Can you hear the crickets chirping as I passed out the name tags in this picture. lol. Jo didn't like being called Oj is all I have to say. Ally became Ylla and so on.
I let Ally pick the finger food. Most popular were the baked beans and the grapes. My kids were the only ones who liked the Deviled Eggs. lol
I made cookies and cupcakes that said "Eat Me". This is the cupcake tree. I didn't make a real cake. Cause I'm lazy.
And I present the inexpensive kitchen. I think lots of little girls are going to suddenly want American Girl Dolls. Sorry moms. I kind of regret it myself, but she loves the stuff and cherishes it.

So there you have it, my cute six year old. :)

My Little Head Case

I know, I know. I need to do a real blog post. Starting with Ally's birthday, through Halloween and past Thanksgiving. I know. But Eden goes to the doctor on Tuesday to discuss her head issues. (I've come to think of my daughter as a "head case." With two flat spots, torticollis and her goopy eyes there is always something going on with her.)

I'm a nervous wreck.

This is what we have been doing the last two months to help her overcome her issues.

The flat spot on the top of her head. Well I haven't actually done much for that but stare at it and fret. I have asked Matt if he thought it was getting better and fretted some more.

Oh and I've forgone headbands for the most part. Poor baby doesn't look as fancy as the other girlies. But I tell you what, the second the doctor says her head is fine (and I'm praying he will), she is getting some new headbands. And flowers. Maybe both.

The flat spot on the back of the head. We've done tons for this one.

We no longer leave her in the carseat. Well most the time anyway. In the past we've used the carseat as a place to set babies when our arms were tired or they fell asleep. Now we hold her anyway. Or have someone else hold her. Or carry her. Or put her in the stroller. But we try not to leave her in the carseat, swing or bouncy seat for long periods. Which means no long trips for a while. (This is very exhausting by the way. My arms are getting very toned.)

We also borrowed a sleep positioner for her head.

So the first time I saw her in it I couldn't decide if she looked more like Dumbo or Pokey the Puppy. What do you think? :)
Recently she's gotten too mobile for it. I lay her in it and when I come back she's wiggled around to the point where it is lost under her blanket somewhere and I have to find it. I don't know how she does it either.

Torticollis

We have been doing physical therapy on her neck several times a day for two months. And she is getting better at holding her head up, but sometimes, like when she is tired it still tilts off to one side. This worries me a bit because I don't know what else to do for her.

The poor abused child also gets a lot of tummy time. Which because of this she has learned to turn over sooner than I was expecting. She can go from tummy to back and back to tummy pretty easily now. This isn't as helpful as it could be, because we want her on her tummy.

Clogged Tear Ducts

Poor kid looks like she has conjunctivitis all the time. They got worse about a week ago and after a couple of fevers I took her in and saw another doctor. She ended up with eyedrops. They are helping a bit, but it's still pretty bad. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when she needs pictures. She hates getting her eyes cleaned. We keep doing it though. I wish I could put her in the bath. She's too little for a real bath.


So I'm going to our new/old doctor on Tuesday. I hope it all goes well. But I'm starting to get nervous. Here's praying that she doesn't need to see a specialist for her head. I'd honestly feel lucky if she needed surgery for her tear ducts and a helmet. But I'd feel truly blessed if all these issues worked themselves out.

Oh and we are going to discuss Lauren, who failed the ice cream diet by the way. Get this, when it is really cold, she doesn't want ice cream. So I bought whole milk for her to supplement the ice cream.

Losing Faith

Poor people. You get another heartfelt post from me. Let's just say I'm going through a lot lately and I'll get the the more interesting stuff later. Hopefully later this week.

When I moved to Utah with my little family, meaning just Matt and Elijah, I took Elijah to my old Pediatrician. When Ally was a baby, he left on a mission. I was panicked at the time, but it worked out. He put in a fairly decent replacement and my kids really loved the replacement doctor.

I ended up following the doctor when he went to his new clinic because my older children were going through some issues and one of those children didn't need anymore stressers in their life.

Fortunately both of their issues have worked out.

But I became dissatisfied with the doctor. Mainly because of Lauren and Eden. After the two month visit where I felt I had done all the hard work and he has sat on his laurels for two previous visits, I started thinking.

Why on EARTH am I not back with the older doctor? The one that was MY pediatrician. The one that is the best diagnostician in the valley. The one that I love and cried when he left. The one that lives half a mile from me. The one that has a closer office. The one that has a more competent staff? WHAT on EARTH am I doing?

I realized that with my younger two I felt overwhelmed all the time because I have done all the hard work. I have called and gotten services without his help. I have kept on top of things with her. And why on earth would he terrify me about Eden's head? Why did he tell me she may need surgery when even he isn't sure that is what is going on?

And the biggest kicker for me... When I asked why my child would have loose stools for so long (at multiple visits I posed this question) I have gotten two answers. The first time I could keep a food diary to see what she reacts to (and after two and a half years I can safely say, NOTHING). The second time I was told she would grow out of it (which I failed to believe after so long and never having solid stools).

She hasn't improved and I am tired of asking him.

So today I went back to my old doctor at the Cherry Tree Clinic. And I'm so glad we did. He helped me rule out autism. And said to me that I have done everything right and he was extremely impressed. Better yet, he said I was a very good mother. In his professional opinion, she will be mainstreamed, catch up and be fine with little to no problems.

And the loose stool issue... We are working on it. But he gave me something solid to try. We are going to try and see if she is not getting enough fat in her diet.

So he prescribed her ice cream. Lucky girl.

(In two weeks he sees Eden. I hope that goes just as well.)

Little Red Hen

Warning: This post is an expression of feelings. And I am in no way talking about anyone who reads this blog. And I have a tracker that tells me who you are.

For those who haven't heard, the new church handbook does away with the Activities Committee. So soon Matt and I will have no callings. But what does this mean for all of our wards??? Are there going to be no more ward parties?

As it has been explained to me, the responsibility for ward parties would fall on the Ward Council. So all of the Presidents of the organizations would now share the responsibility to make sure it happens. Whether this means that one organization would be in charge of the entire planning for one per year or if it means one organization would do the decorations and another would do the food, I don't know. I am to go to Ward Council to ask for the same budget I would have if I were keeping the calling and they are going to decide what to do with it later. It should be an interesting meeting.

I've heard a lot of responses so far to this news, but let me tell you what it means to me.

I am happy.

I am ecstatic.

This is the best news I've had all year!!!

I will tell you why. I have never had such a completely thankless calling in my life. Everyone seems to have an opinion of what should happen, but no one wants to help. Since they weren't actually called everyone seemed to think it wasn't their responsibility. I often felt like the little red hen.

When we got the calling this is what different people said to me:
You should do activities with just adults.
You should do activities geared for kids. (I enjoyed this one.)
The Christmas Party should be a dinner.
The Christmas Party should be a breakfast.
The Christmas Part shouldn't involve the children. (Say what??)
We want more things for the teenagers.

I could go on...

Activities Committee is also where they threw the inactive or the new members. Thus I have often heard of wards with 15 people on the committee but four people doing the actual work. Let me tell you that is a frustrating situation to be one of a few doing the work of many.

At first we started with an excellent committee, but as people were taken for other callings, our numbers dwindled. (Or in the case of Jan given 5-6 callings!!!) Many hands make light work, but when it is just a couple families doing all the work and they all have small children it's overwhelming.

My mom had her Bishop in the past told her to plan parties for the Elders Quorum and fundraiser dinners for the Young Woman, with her budget. She was given the task of doing publicity for other organizations activities. It seemed a misuse of power.

My aunt quit the calling because she was told what to plan, in her case a ward camp out. They wanted a 60 year old woman to plan a ward camp out. Doesn't it seem that if the young families want a ward camp out they should contact the Elders Quorum president?

And we have no power because we weren't really an organization. It's horrible. It became just me doing everything. Because who do I ask? Who is willing to help? It isn't that hard, but I can't do it myself.

So I'm thankful that ward parties are now going to fall to the ENTIRE ward. Which is exactly where it should be. Everyone gets to decide what happens and it isn't left to one of two people to guess what the ward needs. I don't have to stress about if my committee is going to leave me hanging. Or if I'm even going to have a committee. Or is rain is going to force us to clean the whole building (I'm looking at you Trunk or Treat.) Don't get me wrong, I loved planning parties, but no one can do it alone. Every other organization has a presidency to help them. And that is all I really needed.

So don't be surprised, if YOU are asked to plan a party. :) Haha!

For now I am planning one last party. Everyone come to the Christmas Brunch! And we need help, because it is only a couple families and we aren't getting anymore. (Although it occurs to me I could be doing more parties depending on what my next calling is.)

IT also occurs to me that a lot of other callings are like this. And I've had plenty of other callings. But this was the hardest one by far.

Wrestling

This is very ironic, but Sunday, I mentioned I felt sorry for Elijah because he has no brothers to do boy things with. I don't like a lot of loud noises and running around and honestly with only one boy it is easy to get that. He doesn't run inside or rough house very much.

I was in the nursing lounge (strange I know) when I said that and my friend Jenn, asked me if Matt wrestles with him. I was a bit dumbfounded. Matt? Wrestle? bhahahaha! No he doesn't rough house. I am the second of three girls and ONE boy and Matt has three older sisters, him, a younger sister, a down syndrome brother and THEN eight years later a brother. Really the age gap was too much. Neither of us come from "wrestling" families.

The next day I took Elijah to his friend Alex's house to play and watch one of the Harry Potter movies. When I picked him up I asked if he had a good time. Now keep in mind Alex is the only boy in his family as well and ALSO has three sisters.

E: "Yea, except he kept wanting to wrestle."

This jolted me, because Elijah isn't the most athletic kid in the world.

M: "Oh? What happened?"

E: "He just kept wanting to try it but I kept getting hurt."

He then shows me his bruised lip and a goose egg on the back of his head. (I'm assuming this isn't a big deal. I don't have a lot of experience with wrestling induced injuries. lol)

I made feel better noises and later talked with Matt. We both had a good chuckle.

I wish I could have had a camera for that. To see those two boys try and figure that out and to see Elijah rough housing. lol I hope he does it more often.

25-5

As part of my calling, I have to g to Ward Council. Also, for those who don't know, our Bishop is a Psychologist. He explained during the instruction part of the meeting that he sees a lot of couples as part of marriage counseling. One of the first things he has them do is he challenges them to a 25-5. Which is writing 25 things you are grateful for and half of them have to be about your spouse. Make one list everyday for 5 days. And no repeats. He asked us each to do this. So we can develop an attitude of gratitude, especially about our spouse.

While I will spare you all five lists, I am going to write 25 things that I am grateful for and love about Matt.

1.) He's hot.
2.) He is a good cook.
3.) He is always willing to help me.
4.) He's a hard worker.
5.) He understands me.
6.) He's a good father.
7.) He will change a diaper.
8.) He tells me to knock it off when I go overboard.
9.) He's patient.
10.) He listens to me talk. And talk. And talk. (talk=vent)
11.) He loves what he does.
12.) He's good at what he does.
13.) He has the same sense of humor as me.
14.) He is willing to do the laundry.
15.) He will hold Eden whenever I ask.
16.) He is smart.
17.) He figures things out quickly.
18.) He laughs at my lame jokes.
19.) He will take the time to hang pictures straight for me.
20.) He beats me to the dishes 60% of the time. (That number may actually be higher.)
21.) He says he's sorry when he's wrong. And when I need it.
22.) He helps me carry out my mad schemes.
23.) He sacrifices for his children.
24.) He took my son and daughter camping when he didn't really want to.
25.) He LOVES ME!

It's amazing being married to your best friend.

Without the Bishops prompting I already would have written a list like this. I was trying to figure out what to do because I missed writing about our 10 year anniversary and his birthday.

And Matt just got his license. It's been very busy around here, but very exciting.

Friends "Forever"

When I was picking up Ally from school the other day she showed me a small stuffed animal of a dog.

A: Look Mommy. I got a stuffed animal.

M: That's neat. How did you get it?

A: A girl gave it to me. She said it was to represent that we are friends forever.

M: That's sweet Ally, what is your friends name?

A: I don't remember.

Friends forever, huh? lol

Perfect

I can handle a lot of things.

Two job losses. I can take it.

Personal illness. No problem.

Mean notes. That's fine.

But I found something I don't handle well. And that is something happening to my children.

Now Lauren has had a speech delay and that has been very upsetting to me. She is also immature. But I love the little imp and she is making tons of progress. She totally stresses me out, but she is doing great.

But Eden. She's not doing as well.

I first noticed a problem when she was first born. She had a flat spot on the top of her head. Strange, I thought. I've never seen that before. I'm assuming that will go away with time or at worse, she'll need a helmet. I really hope she doesn't need a helmet.

Then at three weeks I noticed a knot in her neck at the collarbone. The doctor looked at it and said it was probably a lymph node.

I had him reexamine it again at five weeks. He looked a little more concerned, but said we would keep an eye on it.

When I went to California I noticed (and my dad noticed) her head listed to the left all the time. And this made me nervous as well.

When I got home, I played Dr. Kari and looked up when could possibly be wrong with her head or neck. And I had the answer. She has a condition called Torticollis which is where one side of her neck is strong that the other for whatever reason. In her case the muscle is actually shorter. The knot in her muscle in her neck is actually a symptom.

The fix is easy (ish). You do physical therapy several times a day to lengthen and strengthen the weaker side.

I went to the doctor and mentioned Torticollis. And yes, she has it. And we are going to do at-home physical therapy. Matt and I each do the exercises several times a day with her.

I also pointed out her (still) clogged tear ducts. And he said they usually clear up. Just keep massaging the area a few times a day.

Then we started talking about flat spots on her head. She has developed a flat spot on the side of her head because of the Torticollis. We are trying to keep her off that side because it can fix itself without needing a helmet.

The flat spot on the top her head though. That one could be a major issue. He said if it doesn't get better he will have to refer us the a doctor at Primary Children's. I asked him if he was the one that does helmets and he said no. He told me if she has unilateral coronal synostosis. She will need surgery on her skull because the skull has fused early. After looking at pictures, if she has this she will become deformed if we do not have the surgery.

I have been a bit hysterical for a few days. Ask Matt. It hasn't been pretty.

But to be perfectly honest it could be something else. When I was pregnant with her, Eden didn't move a lot. She stayed head down the entire time. She only moved to stretch her legs and to spin a little on her head. And when I saw her I assumed the flat spot on the top of her head was from that. There was even a little hair missing in that spot.

So we are praying that both flat spots and the clogged tear duct fix themselves. And the Torticollis is soon a thing of the past as well.

And those previous thoughts about not needing a helmet suddenly doesn't seem like such a bad option.

But really other than those few things, she is a perfect baby. And I love her to pieces.

Onward to Arizona

We drove onward to Arizona after California. After a week and a half in California and now a few days in Arizona, the atmosphere...was...a a little...well I think Lauren can demonstrate accurately how we were all feeling.
Yes, that one is pretty good, but this next one is even better.
Ah yes, after driving to California, than Arizona with a newborn and a crabby three year old, I too wanted to rip my face off. But never fear, we had fun anyway.
Lauren played with, you guessed it, TINKERBELL!

So Matt and I met in Arizona while going to school. Matt is from Arizona so much of his family is there. But mainly, my brother is now there and despite how exhausted my parents and Lauren and I were, I wanted to see their new house and of course them. :)

So unfortunately my mom forgot the camera every time we went to their house.

But we did meet at the hotel pool to go swimming!
Lauren and Tian are waiting patiently by the poolside for an adult to catch them...
Lyric rocked the water wings! Don't tell Ally we saw her! She would be jealous!
Here is my brother, Christian with his son, Tian.
And this is Denise, swimming with Topher.
Swimming with Lauren. This is my first time swimming after having Eden.
Speaking of Eden, here she is hanging out by the side of the pool with my mom. She was great until the 109 degree temperatures got to her.
So I took her swimming for the first time. She...tolerated it. Once she got used to the cold water.And this is some strange lady sunbathing. And oh yes, we are in the water swimming next to her.
And lastly Karyn and Brock are throwing the little kids in the hot tub! Now this part we can't tell Elijah cause he would be WAAAAY upset. Lauren got to go in the hot tub for a few minutes. She loved it of course.

So Karyn is Matt's sister that used to live with us. What were they doing in Arizona. They moved down there.

While were were there Matt's parents and sister took advantage of us coming down to see Eden for the first time.Karyn and Brock holding her. They were here for the entire pregnancy but missed her birth.
Matt's dad holding her.
Matt's mom holding Eden.

And Eden loved every second of it. :)